8 Responses. > 1  the Moon takes an elliptical path around the Earth. The planets make nearly elliptical orbits around the Sun, close enough for reasonable approximations, but the Moonâs Orbit around the Earth is sufficiently influenced by the Sun that it follows a path detectably different from an ellipse.
Quick Answer. In 1896, French scientist Antoine Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity which was an early contribution to atomic theory. He discovered this phenomenon while experimenting with uranium and a photographic plate. Continue Reading.
In December 1903, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded Pierre Curie, Marie Curie, and Henri Becquerel the Nobel Prize in Physics, in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel..